Green machine churns on House side

It’s called Greening the Capitol — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s push to make the Capitol campus more environmentally friendly — but, in fact, it could well be called Greening the House.

Since House and Senate leaders kicked off the ambitious program last summer, the House has outpaced the Senate in new environmental measures, switching from coal to natural gas for heating and cooling, banishing Styrofoam from cafeterias, and saving dozens of tons of waste from landfills with a compost program.

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Signs of change abound in the House: elaborate recycling centers, Zipcars in the Rayburn garage and new energy-efficient vending machines with images of trees on the outside. The changes have been so pervasive that some Hill staffers have lodged complaints. The 100 percent recycled paper sold at the House office supply store jams their printers, they argue, and the store doesn’t sell regular paper.

But walk several hundred yards to the Senate side, and few similar changes are apparent. Life goes on much the same as it did before the Democrats came to power and pledged a greater focus on climate change and environmental issues. Coffee is still served in the same foam cups. And when you throw them out, they head to the landfill with everything else.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) defended the efforts of Senate Democrats in greening the Capitol.

“The Democratic leadership is committed to making the Capitol complex green as soon as possible,” said spokesman Rodell Mollineau. “It’s not a competition between one side of the building and the other; it’s an important joint effort. Nor is it a quick process: This is a historic building with a lot of history to change.”

To be sure, the Senate has made progress. Like the House, it has adopted eco-friendly cleaning products, installed more energy-efficient appliances and replaced incandescent light bulbs with more-efficient fluorescent alternatives. A wall in the back of the Senate Stationery Room sells reams of recycled copier paper. Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the entire Capitol complex faces mandatory goals for reducing energy consumption each year through 2015.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which handles the management of the Senate campus, admits there is room for improvement.

“Most of us feel the House has taken the initiative on some projects. Some are costly. It’s not that the Senate doesn’t care. We do care. I will take a bigger look at it,” she said. “Maybe we should get more involved in this.”

She said she planned to hold a hearing on the issue in the coming months.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) agreed that the Senate has lagged in some areas.

“I think the individual offices are making [environmental changes] in terms of lights and recycling. … We see a lot of things happening, but I think the House has done, up to this point, a more coordinated effort,” she said. “I commend what the House is doing.”

On some issues, the Senate has faced more opposition to environmental improvements. Powerful senators from states with heavy coal production — most notably, Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — have balked at proposals to eliminate it from the Capitol Power Plant in favor of natural gas.

Other senators have argued that the environmental changes are too expensive, with only speculative benefits, or that pressing maintenance issues should be addressed first.

The Senate also faces bureaucratic hurdles that don’t exist on the House side, with many disparate offices handling different functions. The Senate, unlike the House, has faced an operating deficit of more than $1 million in its cafeterias. It is in the process of privatizing its food services to eliminate losses and then address sustainability concerns.